software suggestion

[magician11]

I have a friend who is interested in getting some software that does some web filtering, for her kids I guess? It sounds like software that will filter out most <violates forum rules> related sites. Is there an open source version of this? Not sure which browser they would use, but I imagine it would be browser independent?

thanks.

[JasonLG]

I have a friend who is interested in getting some software that does some web filtering, for her kids I guess? It sounds like software that will filter out most <violates forum rules> related sites. Is there an open source version of this? Not sure which browser they would use, but I imagine it would be browser independent?

thanks.

I don't have any experience with content filters, as I don't have any children but I read a while back about a Firefox plugin that looked pretty promising you might want to check out.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/1803/

[magician11]

Hey JasonLG,

That would be nice and simple. Not sure what OS they use either.. might be Windows, in which case a kid could always use IE to bypass this. Read the comments on the plugin, and it sounds average.

I haven't tried anything yet, but this is what I've found that seems most promising...

For Windows or macs: http://www1.k9webprotection.com/
For Ubuntu based systems: http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/03/how ... in-ubuntu/

Like I said.. haven't tried them yet.. but looks promising..

Thanks for your input.

[riki]

The best and most effective filter for kids is to "pull the plug" and not allow them to go online. Kids will always find a way around and in the privacy of their bedrooms they'll do what they want. And if they can't watch what they want at home they'll go to their friends. There is no stopping them!

[Aging Technogeek]

She could look at Open DNS http://www.opendns.com/ . This is an external site that provides content filtering for home computers and networks. The basic home plan is free and gives the ability to set filters by topic with variable depth of coverage.

In other words, you could set up a filter to block all human nudity, or just nudity associated with sex. Or go the other way and allow just nudity associated with medical texts and websites. This can be done for almost any topic imaginable.

[magician11]

Thanks. That opendns looks really promising! I'll check that out when I set some things up for them.

[Kaushalam]

Hope, you find the resolution. if not, try below firefox add-ons if you are using firefox web browser.
"FoxFilter :: Add-ons for Firefox" - Search with this term in Google and you will find the link to download.

[magician11]

I've had a play with OpenDNS and it looks great. Turns out it can speed up browsing speeds due to quicker DNS resolutions. So I'm going through them anyway for me, with no content filtering.

I like it because it's OS independent, requires no software (except maybe an app to update your account if you have a dynamic IP address), and it allows you to customise the look of the blocked page. If my router would allow (which it doesn't) I could even configure it to use OpenDNS as the DNS servers. That would then cover anyone that connects to my home network. As it is, configuring an individual computer to use different DNS addresses is very easy.

Firefox extensions make me dubious, because someone could simply use a different browser then right??